


Escape the Empire (under construction)

by Empress_Of_Edenia



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Interrogation, Shiro (Voltron) Has PTSD - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Slavery, Torture, pre-established Shidge, this takes place largely during s1, with characters from other seasons showing up
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-08
Updated: 2018-11-19
Packaged: 2018-12-12 15:39:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11740074
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Empress_Of_Edenia/pseuds/Empress_Of_Edenia
Summary: Katie 'Pidge' Holt receives the opportunity of a lifetime: to go on a mission to Kerberos, alongside her brother, father and fellow pilot, Takashi Shirogane! A very exciting prospect for any young space explorer, indeed. But alas, this wasn't the kind of excitement any of them had been hoping for. How will our crew fare, when picked up for an extended trip into the cold, dark recesses of outer space?





	1. Chapter 1

“Sir," said the purple, catlike alien standing with his back to Katie. "They appear to be nothing more than inferior Earthling scientists. I don't think they're withholding any important information."

Katie knelt on the bridge of this foreign aircraft, a starship unlike one she'd ever seen. Its architecture and internal structures didn't even seem possible, by a human being's standards. Then again, extraterrestrials were capable of just about anything, weren't they? Katie tried to will her morbid fascination away and focus on the situation. Aside from what she'd already gathered, she couldn't figure out anything else about their location. All Katie knew was that she, her dad, Matt and Shiro were aboard a ship they couldn't identify, in a galaxy that might not have even been their own. Maybe the conversation between the aliens could give her more clues.

The two aliens talked among each other. Or what sounded like two, anyway. In this light, or lack thereof, not much could be seen without the strange violet glow of a few LEDs above. The figure on the holoscreen in front of them stood shrouded in a darker shadow than all of those threatening to engulf the aircraft.

The alien onscreen didn't seem to like his subordinate's suggestion. "Take them to the Druids for questioning and find out what they know," he commanded, his voice a deep baritone.

Katie stared at the screen in confusion. ‘Druids? What we know? What are we supposed to know!?’ she asked herself.

She struggled with her restraints as the soldiers yanked her to her feet. Both Katie and her crew were escorted down a series of winding corridors, with the exception of Shiro. Unconscious again, he had the privilege of being dragged by his arms. Eventually, they came to the end of one hall. Alarm spiked her gut when the soldiers led Shiro, Matt and her dad away.

Try as she might to follow them, the soldiers would allow no such thing. They tossed her into a white room, where more of the alien staff stripped her of her astronaut gear, hosed her off and gave her new clothes to wear in place of her flight suit. It turned out that prisoners had uniforms, too. Once clad in her bodysuit and tattered purple rags, Katie was bound again and escorted down another hall.

A group of males followed right behind them, wearing similar attire and with their heads bowed.

Katie turned to see if her crew members were among the men and boys. Sad to say, she recognized not a face in the crowd. But she would have much more to worry about, soon enough. 

For when she turned to look ahead, she was already in another room. More of the same technology filled the room, although its beauty came across as barbaric to her, in a way. A thought dawned on Katie, then; she remembered going over Matt’s textbooks for an assignment, long before they both attended the Garrison. She had come across a picture of some unfortunate soul. He lay stretched out across what the article called a rack, contorting in mid-anguish. She’d been unable to empathize with such plights, back in those those days. But today, _she_ would be that unfortunate soul. Yet Katie couldn’t quite understand why she was being tried as some Salem witch. Not even as they secured her to a similar device, her limbs splayed apart.

Several figures gathered into the room she was being held. All of them were dressed in flowing robes with hoods, their faces concealed by emotionless white masks. One stood before her, while the rest crowded by a machine that stood next to the device suspending her. The multiple eyes painted on the robed figure's mask never broke contact with her own gaze.

“Answer our questions and no harm will come to you,” it said. “Simple, yes?”

Katie found herself nodding in agreement, before trying to ask the several dozen she had for them. Keeping her mouth shut seemed like the better option, based on everything she'd seen so far.

“Good. Now then, you and your fellow Earthlings were found nearby Kerberos. What were you doing there?”

“Just taking samples,” she explained when she found the courage. “We were collecting evidence to learn about life on other planets f-for proof we aren’t alone in the universe.” She paused, here. “That’s a fairly obvious ‘yes,’ now, so there isn’t any reason to keep us. You can let us go.”

The figure looked unmoved. It folded its arms behind itself, pacing in short strides. “Is that the only thing you came for? Are you certain that you weren't looking for something of greater value?” It faced her, again. “A Blue Lion, maybe?”

“...Blue what?” Her brows furrowed.

“If you insist on playing dumb,” the figure sighed, creating a replica of this Lion from thin air. It hovered in the figure's palm.

Katie watched it spin in circles, studying each facet of detail. She gave them the same answer regardless. “I’m sorry, but I’ve never seen that until toda-” faster than she could blink, a bolt of metaphysical matter shot up through the slab and into her body.

“Lies," said the figure in front of her. "Our coordinates pinpoint to where we found your ship. You are well aware of what the Blue Lion is and have stolen from the emperor. Tell us where you're hiding it.”

The bolt hit her in the thigh, although she might as well have been bludgeoned with an iron sledgehammer. Her muscles seized and cramped, only for the rigid tissue to explode into a thousand fiery needles. Her leg would not stop twitching, afterward. A cry of agony erupted from Katie, knocking the wind out of her. “I already told you the truth,” she stressed once it returned. “We don’t know anything!”

“Wrong again, Earthling scientist.” Another figure, who had been silent throughout the ordeal, grabbed hold of the lever on the machine next to Katie and cranked up the voltage.

Another ten-thousand pins rendered her helpless as though swarms of wasps invaded every fiber, every crevice. They shocked her in the stomach, the second time around. It was like molten heat churning in a solid lump at her center. Had it not been for this slab, she might have gone flying when the next few bolts struck. The bolts traveled up Katie’s spine, and it took everything to endure the violent convulsions from behind. Her back arched up and away from the table, so much so that it’d snap in half any minute now.

The session carried on for an hour. No matter what Katie said, or how many times she repeated herself, the figures kept at it. She never thought the maelstrom, or her echoing screams, would end. “Stop! P-please just stop…I swear I don’t know where it is,” she coughed up, on the verge of tears.

A quiet hum of laughter and more pain was all she got in response to her begging. The shocks were twice as powerful now, thanks to her big mouth. The appearance of yet another figure interrupted the interrogation. It wore no mask, or so Katie believed. She was not conscious enough to tell. 

“Enough wasting time,” demanded an older woman’s voice. “Vargas have been spent on this creature while Emperor Zarkon grows impatient. Resume questioning tomorrow, those are his orders.”

The device powered down, undoing the locks on her limbs. Katie slumped out of her bonds and crumpled into the grasp of the maskless woman. Katie cringed with a whimper at being touched. Her head lolled about as the woman carried her from the interrogation room. As the world around her faded in and out, Katie hardly fought back when the woman handed her over to a guard.

The guard tossed the young girl inside of the cell beside him.

In truth, the cool steely floor against her skin was the only comfort she’d received all day, and so she welcomed it. Katie passed out as soon as he shut the doors, encased in impregnable darkness.

At some point during the night, many hours later, her sleep was disturbed by the sound of crying. Nothing too loud, but just audible enough. She would’ve ignored it, had she not recognized who awoke her. Katie sat upright to look around and, as expected, there Shiro knelt.

His silhouette contrasted with the view from their only window, wracked with sobs.

For a moment, she observed him. There had been only one time where he’d cried in front of her. He had been the same age as Matt, about eight, while she was two years behind them both. Shiro had taken a wrong turn on his bike and cut open his elbow. It wasn’t long before he hopped right back on, speeding down the street and beaming. It gave her younger self the impression that nothing really affected him at all. Even back then, Shiro made the biggest fuss about her concerns, though he brushed them off as politely as possible. There was no telling how much of an act he'd put on if Shiro knew she could see him like this. Still, Katie had to do something. To hell with his pride and her injuries. Right now, he needed her the most.

Katie crawled the best she could, careful not to tread upon the sea of prisoners in her midst. Somehow, she managed to wade through, over and in between each writhing mass. She settled into his lap when she finally got there.

“Thank God it’s you,” Shiro sighed, pulling her close. His unsteady breath flowed out as if he were unloading some burden he’d carried with him, until now. “After they took Commander Holt and Matt away, I-I thought I’d lose you, too.”

“Shhh… I’m here, Big Guy. I'm not going anywhere.” One hand lay on his chest, the other caressed his back. It traveled up to his shoulders, just below the neck. She recalled what happened earlier when they first arrived. The terrible welcome replayed in her head as she closed her eyes; she could still see the butt of that soldier's gun ramming into Shiro. Katie opened her eyes and stretched up. Gently as gentle could be, she grazed her lips over the welt on his neck. “I’m sorry I couldn’t stop them.”

“Don’t worry about that, it isn’t your fault.” He stroked her head, undoing her tight ponytail in the process. It was easier to massage her scalp without it. “By morning, I’ll be all better.”

‘There he goes again,’ she griped to herself. Oh well. She hated it, but those were the kinds of traits that came with the entire package of Takashi Shirogane. A fact Katie accepted the day she’d discovered a note in her locker and chose to write back, come senior year. That was his one and only imperfection, as far as she was concerned.

A low chuckle rumbled in his chest. “You know… when I said that I wanted to get you all alone someplace where we could be underneath the stars, this isn’t exactly what I had in mind.”

In spite of herself, Katie snorted with a laugh of her own before looking up at him. “Seriously? _That’s_ the first thing you think of at a time like this?”

“Sorry, babe,” Shiro apologized, “just thought it would lighten the mood. It worked, though, didn’t it?” His smile couldn’t quite meet his puffy red eyes.

Katie traced the contours of his face. She outlined sharp cheekbones and a strong squared off jaw. “Yeah… Yeah, it did,” she admitted. And just like that, she could picture them in the comfort of his living room, once more. The day before graduation, rain pouring in buckets outside. They were curled up on the couch with nothing but a blanket and her favorite episode of Freaky Science Cinema to keep them company. Underneath the blanket, their fingers intertwined. It had been her means of silent protest against his parents’ rules. Even with both Shiroganes sitting in the next room with the door wide open, Katie had dared to defy their sensibilities.

She could relive these moments through his gaze forever, but Takashi had to sleep sooner or later. In truth, watching his eyelids close and his body finally relax soothed her, just a bit. Katie lay atop him with her chin resting on his heart. She could not shut her own eyes, sadly. Katie gave into the insomnia instead, listening to the industrial ambience of the prison ship, the snoring and woeful groans of her fellow prisoners. All while counting how many times Shiro’s breath rose and fell.

As she stared out of the window, taking in every star, distant planet, asteroid, galaxy and nebula that passed them by, her mind littered itself with questions like it often did. What would await them all, come morning? Why were they, of all people, being punished for no reason? Where _had_ the aliens taken her dad and brother? Were they alright? Had they been tortured as well? Then came the most pressing query: when would help arrive? Someone would notice, eventually. The Garrison would do the right thing and send out reinforcements, some kind of search party… wouldn’t they? They had to. They needed to. What other hope was left for the Kerberos astronauts otherwise?

 

* * *

Katie didn't need to wait or worry for very long. A few days later, she and Shiro were taken into another strange room. It were as though she was reliving her first night in prison, only grasping the purpose of this room until they were both strapped down to operating tables. Shiro punched, kicked and fought back as hard as he could, but there were just too many of them to overpower. In the end, the 'Galra,' as they called themselves, won.

Medical tools of all shapes, sizes and functions were laid out between their respective tables. Said tools were the last thing she remembered seeing before the buckled an oxygen mask around her head and put her to sleep.

When she came to, the room was significantly less crowded. Katie was now resting on a hospital bed with a few doctors still lingering around her. They entered data into handheld devices, combing over every inch of her with attentive yellow eyes. Katie's hands were no longer restrained, she realized as she sat upright. So she gingerly ran her fingers over her own body while the doctors took note of her behavior. Katie stopped at the back of her neck when she felt something like a bump resting there. A bump that was also smooth and sleek. It was obvious to her that it was an implant of some kind, but not what it did or why they had inserted things into her like she was some lab rat. She stared up at the doctors. "W-what is this?"

None of them gave her a straight answer, instead choosing to log more data into their devices.

"What did you do to me?!" She couldn't help herself as the panic and dread set her off. Katie reached out for one of the doctors on instinct, grabbing his hand so that she might better get his attention. Her fingers dug into the fur on his palms.

The Galra doctor wrenched his hand out of her shaky iron grip, causing her to stumble backward and onto her rear. "Patient is excitable, but otherwise all vital signs are normal," he muttered, adding that tidbit to his device and going about his business.

Her breaths were getting too shallow. Katie scrambled to ask another doctor when she turned to find Shiro resting in a bed next to hers. He was still laying down, either taking this infinitely better than she was or just too out of it to sit up as she did. Katie did her own impromptu investigation from afar, as one Galra hovered too close by for her to get any nearer. Shiro's right arm was gone, in its place a residual limb wrapped neatly in bandages. Everything else, however, was perfect and intact as is had been before the surgery. Her hand flew to her mouth as Katie tried to repress a scream in her throat.

Shiro only glanced at her. He was doing his best to avoid looking at Katie and to ignore his missing arm. When searching his expression, she found that it was stony and cold in an unfamiliar way. Yet there was something harsher, darker bubbling underneath its surface. Though clearly none of it was meant for her, his icy mask left its impression on her all the same.  

The two of them sat there in the infirmary for a while longer, until someone came to fetch Katie. She wasn't taken too far from where they were keeping Shiro, as she could hear him trying to communicate with the Galra. And garnering the same results, judging by the sound of it.

"Look this way, prisoner," said the Galra who'd led her away from Shiro.

Katie turned to face the Galra with a sharp pivot. She stared up at him, then began to distance herself as he walked toward her.

Her reflexes weren't quick enough and he grabbed her regardless. Just one of his hands was large enough to hold the entirety of her ribcage in his palm, his fingers hooked around her like an arcade claw. The Galra then slammed Katie back into the wall behind her.

Katie squeezed her eyes shut and tensed in anticipation, her own fingers tearing at the Galra's. But to her amazement, she didn't feel anything. A bit of pressure, maybe, but nothing that she could describe as pain or bruising.

The Galra turned his wrist and slammed her into the wall again. This time, he rammed Katie's shoulder into the unyielding metal, although there was a faint dent in it afterward.

It took a bit longer for her body to recover from that one, but still Katie wasn't in any pain. In between 'tests,' she raised one of her hands to look at them. She shook from head to toe, but whether that was the microchip working its awful wonders or her own horror Katie couldn't say.

The Galra finally stopped, but pinned her arms behind her. "Subject has adapted well to her new implant. Recovery delay is still in need of fine tuning, however," the Galra spoke into a recording device of sorts.

Katie let him escort her back to the room she and Shiro were sharing. She saw that he was much more alert now, and clearly more frustrated than he had been earlier. Katie jerked her arms out of the Galra's grip and reluctantly crawled back into bed. Her ankle was then cuffed to the bed, but it was better than a holding cell.

"Katie..." Shiro said when he saw her, his eyes wide and roaming over her arms. "Babe, are you alright?"

"Yeah," Katie replied. She looked down at her own arms now, realizing that bruises were forming on them in spite of the microchip. "I feel... I f-feel just fine." Her voice was hollow and empty when she said it aloud, as if it were wrong. Because it _was_ wrong. But in the face of all sound reasoning and logic that proved otherwise, it was true.

Katie was doing great.

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shiro's POV, this time. We enter the intergalactic equivalent of a Colosseum as he and Katie get ready to battle it out against the Galra's toughest. How well will our tag team do?

In all of his life, Shiro had never seen that much blood come out of another person.

It dripped from Katie's nose, shoulders, the tips of her ears. Really, it was hard to tell where it _wasn’t_ coming from. It was terrible to watch her peel herself up off of the floor every time she fell. To say Shiro didn’t cringe whenever she faltered, or her limbs wobbled as though she’d never walked before would be a lie. Given any other circumstance, Katie would've stayed down the first few times she'd been knocked on her ass. She would've stayed down and had to be carted off with the rest of the gladiators that didn't make the cut.

But as of this match, Katie wasn't performing under just any circumstances.

The glowing microchip on the back of her neck was visible as she trudged over to Shiro. Her posture changed the closer she got to him, forcing itself upright with violent shudders here and there. By the time she had regained the strength to look up at him, Katie stood there as if she hadn't been beaten like an egg. Shiro steeled his nerves in the face of her uncanny nature. He pitied whoever thought that her size served as an excuse to try and tick her off.

Their opponent staggered up and onto his feet, once again. He had a net in one hand, a trident in the other. The Galra wore no protective gear of any kind on his head, leaving his smirk for the both of them to see.

Shiro ignored that for now, though. If things worked in their favor today, this gladiator wouldn’t be wearing that expression for much longer. He looked to her again for another surge of inner confidence. “Like we practiced, okay?” Shiro muttered to her while he could.

“Like we practiced,” she mimicked, taking off without looking back.

He, too, sprinted forward. Shiro used his own advantages to get a little ahead of Katie. Up the ramp they went, once more.

They didn't get very far before the Galra began hurling stones and bits of scrap metal in Shiro’s direction.

It failed to deter him in the slightest. Shiro turned his shield every which way and deflected the debris, sending it back out into the arena. Shiro brought down his blade with a swing.

The Galra hardly flinched, blocking the overhead attack with his trident and batting the weapon away with his padded bicep. The gladiator jabbed the glorified spear towards Shiro's abdomen and the top of his head.

Shiro's shield caught most of the prongs, yet he still hissed at the sting of iron grazing his skull. A few drops of scarlet sprayed when Shiro ducked behind.

The Galra flipped his trident around to jab Katie, too.

From what little Shiro could see behind this thing, their opponent had a much more difficult time trying to get to her. It provided Shiro with a bounty of opportunities to slash and strike. Had he not come in wearing his game face, he would’ve allowed himself a proud smile. Now was not the time, however.

That trident was coming at him faster than he could think about it. His shield caught the trident just in time. Adjusting his already tight grip, Shiro swung the sword. He gave it his very all with this next one. Shiro jerked his head and torso out of the way, upon impact.

It appeared luck was on his side, after all. When the blade smacked into the trident’s handle, it flew from the Galra’s hand. It spun in a circle before clattering onto the floor, echoing its surrender amidst the shouting and jeers. As planned, he reached for the dagger on his hip, a last ditch effort to cut Shiro down for good.

Shiro was ready with his elbow, covered in its own armor. Shiro took the otherwise vicious swipe in stride, but he would not be able to hold it forever. Their opponent pushed back against him, each time Shiro put up resistance.

The Galra trembled, but was close to breaking Shiro’s hold.

‘Now, Katie, now!’ Was all Shiro could think. He, too, shook from the growing pressure. Shiro poured all he had left to keep the opening for her.

Her timing couldn’t have been better. Out of the corner of his eye, Shiro saw her dash back up the ramp, let her lasso fly and ensnare the Galra’s ankle. It tightened when she yanked it back, taking the Galra with it and pulling him to his knees. She only had a window of time to carry out her next move. Katie took that chance by the horns and quickly grabbed the electric net he’d dropped. Katie tossed her newly acquired weapon in the fallen man’s direction. With the momentum of the heavy metal disks, it wrapped around his throat three times. She then snatched both ends and let herself drop off the edge of the ramp.

A bit of fight still left inside, the Galra swayed his torso from side to side in an attempt to shake her off. His fingers scraped at the threads choking him. 

Katie curled her legs up and into her torso until she became an impenetrable ball, acting like an anchor to a docked ship.

He arched back in just the way Shiro needed him to.

Shiro roundhouse kicked the Galra in the chest. His ankle hit the emblem surrounding it with a loud _clang_.

Their opponent toppled to the ground.

An enormous burden lifted itself from Shiro, once he could truly take his eyes off of the man. He and Katie had done it. They had won their fifth match. Now here they stood, able to walk away with their lives. Shiro placed his sword and shield aside, crouching over the edge of the center ramp to hoist up his teammate.

The crowd cried out in deafening cheer, many of them coming to stand as he helped Katie to her feet.

He clutched her tiny hand and leaned down to whisper into her ear. “You’re amazing,” he told her.

Katie gazed at him with the creases under her eyes gathered in bunches. Those cute, crooked teeth flashed him a smile. If he had to be honest with himself, sometimes that was all the reward he needed. No sooner had she revitalized him with her smile that it started to wane. Her features twisted in pain, her mouth agape. Try as it might to work her through the pain and ignore it, the microchip was limited in what it could do.

“What is it? What’s wrong?” Shiro looked all around her to see where the pain could be coming from. It didn’t dawn on him until he looked behind her.

Lodged in between her shoulder blades was none other than the accursed trident. Blood spread in a small irregular stain on her shirt, trickling down her suit. Katie made no sounds as the trident was ripped out of her.

Now having come to his senses, the Galra struck her lower back with his net.

It impaired her already precarious balance and sent her onto the floor.

With a running leap, the Galra launched himself a few good feet into the air, showing off for the enthralled arena-goers. He poised to land right atop his victim, with trident held high above his head.

Katie rolled over and cast out her lasso. It wrapped around Shiro’s discarded shield, pulling it towards her. She dragged it across the tiles beneath the sand. Katie crawled underneath it, two seconds before her assailant could stab her.

The prongs bounced off of the mirror-like surface, but he continued attacking, anyway.

Like a turtle from its shell, Katie stuck her arm out of the shield. Her finger pointed up, exactly the way in which they’d been taught to do when one could go no further.

Shiro had already started running toward them, but along came the referee.

She put her palm to Shiro’s chest with one hand, then grabbed hold of the Galra with the other. The referee grasped the Galra's wrist, holding it up for the crowd to see.

‘Are they…?’ Shiro asked himself. Indeed, they were. He’d learned early on that the only ones with any say in their lives were the spectators. His stomach lurched as he looked out to the crowd. Those who had not stood for them now rose to their feet, making gestures of their own in response to Katie’s surrender. Some stuck their thumbs out to the side, while others pointed straight down with theirs. Shiro had never seen the crowds get indecisive like this before, and he feared what it would mean for the match. He turned to the referee to get her thoughts.

She released the Galra, but kept Shiro at bay for a moment longer.

‘We lost, didn’t we?' Shiro cursed to himself as he could taste his dread. 'Damn it, I have to do something!’

Shiro knocked the referee out of the way.

She stumbled backward with a mere shove, thanks to his brute strength.

Right as the Galra raised his trident to his side, he came crumpling back down. He grunted into Shiro, who pinned him to the pillars of the ramp.

The boy interlocked his fingers behind the Galra’s head before raising a knee and connecting it with his forehead. A sharp jolt of pain exploded in Shiro's kneecap, but he continued with his disobedience. Shiro punched, rearranged and broke more than the nose he was sure he’d already shattered.

Two more handlers ran into the arena and pried him off of his prey.

His last blow to the jaw had rendered the assailant good and unconscious, unable to hurt his Katie any longer. Let them do what they pleased, now that it was officially settled. All three gladiators were carried or escorted from the arena. The two victors down into the recesses of the hypogeum, the fallen Galra to the medical bay.

* * *

 

 _Five lashes. Six lashes. Seven lashes._ Counting them did not make them go by any faster, Shiro knew that. Nothing else could really distract him, though. His choices were either doing this or gazing back out into the group of prisoners. He might not have minded so much, if Katie wasn’t standing at the forefront.

There were times when he faced his fellow slaves that Shiro saw her turn away from the gruesome sight. She would peek every now and then, not able to help herself.

 _Eight lashes. Nine lashes. Ten Lashes._ That last one cut especially deep on his lumbar. He peered over his shoulder to see the flagellant swing its scourge in wide, dramatic circles above their head. It must’ve been the highlight of this person’s day, inflicting this much torment on an unruly fighter.

So much blood had accumulated beneath him that he would often slip in the puddle. The motion tugged his strung up arms to and fro, giving every burning tear more bite. Shiro felt the world around him grow fuzzy, but he snapped himself out of it. He would never give them the satisfaction of seeing him passing out. Nor would Shiro let them hear his screams. Admittedly, though, this was thanks to the horse bit they had shoved in between his teeth earlier. Eventually, his ankles needed to be strapped down to either of the bars from which he hung, his legs a few inches apart.

While doing this, his handlers took the opportunity to further undo the open seam on his bodysuit. Now with the entirety of his back and buttocks on display, the flagellators resumed in haste.

 _Thirteen lashes. Fourteen lashes._ The fifteenth and final lash tore the tender hide of his buttocks to ribbons. More blood trickled down under his shaking thighs. Were it not for the fact that he wore all black, those crimson streaks would’ve shown up more on the latex. It was over, either way. He slumped forward and let his head loll backward. Shiro's eyes wandered, then widened in bewilderment. They had one last surprise for him.

Three prisoners carried a lidless drum towards Shiro. It was filled with a liquid he could not identify. Whatever it was that churned and sloshed around in the drum, it glowed with a magenta hue. A wave of sulfur wafted up from its contents and invaded his nostrils.

“Keep your eyes forward, boy,” ordered his master. “Lest you get it in your face and make yourself useless to me.”

Shiro obeyed, picking his head up. He was absolutely still, but Shiro's master gripped the back of his head anyway. Using what little wiggle room he had, Shiro turned only an inch to peer over his shoulder.

One prisoner dipped a ladle into the toxic vat, then carefully brought a cupful of sludge to his back. It was here that his master let go.

Only now did Shiro realize what the liquid was. The way it gnawed into the open wounds and ate away at free-ended nerves, it could only be saltwater. The brine left a trail of blistering bites behind it as it flowed over his cuts. He chomped down on the horse bit for security again. It worked, until the brine dripped onto his buttocks. Not even two bits could hold back all of the coarse, shrieking wails he’d kept inside. Shiro threw back his head and squeezed his eyes shut. But when it became far too excruciating, he found them stretching open to the extreme. Muffled cries vibrated in his chest, filling the disciplinary quarters. Only now did he struggle against the post holding him hostage. He twisted and turned his wrists, his efforts proving futile.

The same prisoner reluctantly went back into the drum for another cup.

Tears stung the corners of his eyes. Shiro mumbled incoherent pleas through the bit and shook his head.

Thankfully, his master stopped her, bidding her to pour it back in. He sent the prisoner assistants back into the crowd before walking towards them. The Galra came to stand ahead of Shiro, one arm folded neatly behind himself. “Let this serve as a lesson to you all,” he said, pointing his finger to Shiro. “Our word is law in this arena and in these barracks. Nothing but the utmost loyalty, devotion and respect will be tolerated from any of you. Unless _this_ looks like your idea of time well spent.”

It almost sounded like some sort of demented trick question. There was silence weaving through the crowd, no soul brave enough to interrupt the quiet.

The irritable Galra repeated himself. “Does this look like where you ought to be!?”

An intimidated chorus of “n-no, sir” answered him with no hesitation.

“That is exactly what I want to hear from my warriors. Back to your rooms.” This, of course, excluded Shiro.

As soon as Shiro was released from the whipping post, he was told to follow the medical staff into the bay for treatment. The metal horse bit fell from his quivering lips, with a few strings of saliva to follow. He breathed in a shallow gulp of air and limped after the doctors.

* * *

 

Shiro opened his eyes when he could no longer feel those mystical forces lifting him up in mid air. In a fluid motion, Shiro’s levitation came to an end. A shiver brought him back to reality, when his bare abdomen made contact with the chrome lining of the healing pod.

He’d almost attempted to climb out by himself, but a pair of nurses stood up from their desks to assist him.

Shiro would let them do it, this time. It would be both pointless and exhausting to interfere with those who only meant to do their jobs as efficiently as possible.

The women sat him down on an operating table. While they went to get some bandages, Shiro caught his reflection in one of the pods’ surfaces. From what he could tell, most of the lashes had scarred over into an uneven tapestry. He would count that as a benefit, since he could hardly feel them now. Sitting for long periods of time, however, well… it came as no surprise when Shiro found himself standing up after only a few minutes.

The nurses carried on with taping and smoothing over a soft wet patch onto his back. His muscles settled into a relaxed state when the eucalyptus-like chemicals seeped into his pores. They wrapped flexible bandages around Shiro's torso until the patch was securely held in place, with no chance of falling off whenever he moved.

Shiro felt stiff yet safe overall. Although he wasn’t quite sure how he liked this when it came time to do the same with his buttocks. Needless to say, walking back to his assigned room could’ve made for a much less awkward trip. At least he had his clothes on, now. No one really needed to know what was beneath them or look at him with any sort of pity.

The sound of the doctor clearing her throat caught his attention. “I trust that I don't have to remind you to sleep on your stomach,” she said, raising a thin violet eyebrow.

“No, ma'am,” Shiro replied, crossing his arms.

“Very good. I advise you get as much rest as possible, for now. I do not know when they have scheduled your next fight, but you will not be able to participate if you neglect even that much.”

He nodded. “I hear you loud and clear, ma’am.”

The doctor quickly typed in some foreign text into what looked like an advanced PDA. “Be safe out there, young man. Compliant as you have been, I feel no joy in seeing you turn up at our labs.”

Shiro watched her go, before turning to enter his room. He gave a gentle knock on the door first. “Katie…?”

No response. He tried again, but received the same reply as before. Shiro gave up and simply triggered the motion sensor by walking forward. The sliding door revealed that Katie was definitely in their room, but she didn’t stir when he entered. She lay with her back to him, the rise and fall of her body shuddering in uneven waves. Shiro saw the bandages on her, and it was evident that she was sleeping off the pressure of forced recovery the best that she could.

Shiro more than understood what it was like. He understood it well enough to not disturb her or try to wake her at the moment. Katie would get up when she was done healing, however long that took. Besides, the pseudo-privacy was what Shiro needed right about now. He could feel his own body succumbing to the effects of all this alien technology. Until there was something better to do with his time, Shiro laid down on the bed beside her and tried to get some sleep.

He dozed off for what he guessed to be half of an hour before his eyes opened again. Shiro tried squeezing them shut, but there’s wasn’t much he could do once he was fully awake. Nothing except lay there, flat on his stomach with his elbows tucked underneath him.

Thankfully, Shiro wouldn’t have to stare into the abyss of his pillow for much longer. He could hear Katie shuffling around feebly across from him. “Mm…”

Shiro turned his head around so that he could at least see her, even if he couldn’t actually face her. “Hey…” he croaked.

He half expected her to croak “hi” in return, but wasn’t too surprised when she didn’t. Katie instead answered him with a displeased grunt and refused to look at him, staying exactly how she was when he first walked in.

“Come on, you know why I had to do it,” Shiro reasoned with Katie.

“I don’t care,” she said. “It was stupid as hell and you almost died. How are we going to make it through this if you keep doing stuff like that?”

Shiro frowned, looking back to his pillow. “I don’t know what else you expected me to do.”

At this, Katie shifted around in her bed to glare tired daggers at him. “How about take our situation seriously?” She winced as soon as she said that. Apparently, half an hour wasn’t long enough post-pod healing time.

Shiro sighed. Katie had a point, even though he would pulverize several more Galra just to see her get home safely. Their beds were squished right next to each other, so Shiro reached for her hand. Said hand was dangling off the edge of hers, but he preferred that she give it to him willingly.

Katie grimaced at it, for a second. Her face scrunched up as though he’d presented her with a helping of the mess hall’s lunch special. But soon, she softened. She groaned and wrapped her skinny fingers around his, giving them a tight squeeze for reassurance.

Shiro allowed himself a tiny smile, squeezing her hand right back.

“Look, I get it,” she said after a moment. “But I need you in one piece if we’re going to get out of here.” She said it as if there was no room for the probability of them staying behind.

With which he agreed entirely. “Got it. I’ll be more mindful of that.”

“You know how you can really help?” she asked. “By keeping an eye on the other gladiators in these barracks. There’s a place where they dump all of the dead ones, but I can’t figure out where that is…” She trailed off, here, lost in her troubleshooting.

“I think I know where they take them,” he chimed in as he lifted his head up.

That grabbed her attention immediately, but Katie took her time in sitting up so that she could hear the rest of what he had to say. 

Shiro fought through his fog and tried his best to remember. “It’s off to the side, different from the door that leads out of the arena. There’s always this gross smell coming from that place, like something’s burning.”   


“So, they cremate dead gladiators?” Katie asked. 

“Looks that way,” Shiro answered. “I can’t think of anything else that would stink so bad.”   


Katie went silent, for a minute. It was plain to see the wheels turning in her head, and even easier to tell where she was headed. “It might be our only way out.”   


“Well, we’re not just waltzing out of the front door, are we?” Shiro knew that he promised to be more serious about this, but he couldn’t help himself.   


She rolled her eyes. “By the way, I’m gonna need your arm at some point today.”   


Shiro flinched on instinct. He forced himself to relax, reminding himself that it was her asking to do this rather than one of the doctors or Druids. “What for?”   


“I want to see how compatible our enhancements are,” Katie explained.   


Shiro still didn’t fully understand what she was going to do with his arm, but he knew that asking for more detail would lead him down a rabbit hole of techno babble he’d never crawl out of. “Alright, just… just let me hang onto it for a little longer, okay?”   


Katie gave him a reassuring look and it warmed Shiro up like a firewood stove. “Okay, just for a bit.”   


“If you need anything else to check our compatibility, I can try to swipe some tech from the med bay,” Shiro offered.   


“You’re the best boyfriend ever,” Katie replied.   


Shiro spent the rest of the day idly talking to her and listening to the sounds of her breaking open his prosthetic arm. The sounds of scraping metal weren’t exactly pleasant, nor was the sight of a million tubes and wires sticking out of his arm picturesque, but it was better than napping.   


Shiro was leaning back when she finished with her hands-on analysis. He watched her put all of the pieces back into place. “So, what do you think?” 

“I think we’re gonna synch up pretty well,” Katie answered, snapping the hatch closed. “But I won’t know for sure until you can get me something to check my own implant.”   


He nodded, taking his arm from her and wrenching it back onto his residual limb. Everything seemed to be falling into place. They’d find that exit, work their way around getting as close to it as possible and just hope for the best.   


So why did Shiro get the sinking feeling that something wasn’t right with this plan?

 


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Katie's plan to get her loved ones back home is set and ready to launch. There's only one thing Shiro doesn't agree with, concerning it. And that's something Katie isn't willing to argue about.

Katie paced back and forth in their shared cell, her brows knit together.

They had been told about their scheduled fight two nights in advance. It should’ve overjoyed her; it was the perfect opportunity to put their plan into motion. But it did nothing to alleviate the clamminess of her palms or her shaking legs. Her legs were going to turn to jelly any minute, now. She just knew they were. ‘What if something goes wrong? What if they figure out what we’re doing?’ Katie asked herself.

It took Shiro putting his hands on her shoulders to stop her from walking a rut into the floor of their cell. “We’ve got to focus.”

Katie huffed out an exasperated breath. “Right, sorry.”

“Let’s go over the plan again,” Shiro said.

Katie agreed to that, as it was the best distraction they had at the moment. “Near the end of the match today, you’re gonna let me get a few good hits in to make it look convincing. After that, you go down and stay down.”

“And then they’ll take me away to that incinerator place.” Shiro always made it sound like no big deal, but his reassurance could only go so far, for her. Especially when it came to talking about his own ‘death.’

“Once you’re there, you’ll do what you have to do to get the hell off of this ship,” Katie added on, taking his followed silence as a cue to keep going. “And hopefully… get back home.”

Shiro coaxed her through a deep breath when their game plan had been laid out into the open without ambiguity. Well, almost without ambiguity.

Katie knew he was going to ask his next question sooner or later. She just didn’t have a better answer to it than what she came up with when contributing to their plan.

“We still need to figure out how you’re gonna get out after I do,” Shiro said.

“Shiro… I’m sorry, but that doesn’t look like it’s gonna happen,” she admitted. “Not immediately, I mean.”

He shook his head at that. “I can’t just leave you here. There has to be a way.”

“Well, there isn’t,” Katie responded. “We can’t take on all of those sentries by ourselves. They’ll overpower us before we can even get to Matt’s cell, or Dad’s.”

“Even with the chip helping you?” Shiro asked.

Katie nodded, sliding her hand up the back of her neck until she found the little bump with her fingertips. “Yeah, even with this.”

There was a pause of silence between them, then. Shiro seemed to have run all out of reasons why their plan needed to change or why he should come back for her. Still, Katie could tell that he was far from giving up on his position. It was that look in his eye, the way he folded his arms and chewed into his bottom lip.

“...I can’t promise anything, but I’m going to do everything I can to meet you back on Earth.” Katie walked closer to Shiro, reached up and placed her hands on his arms. If only she weren’t so short, she could put them on his shoulders and reassure him like she wanted to. “You have to get home. You have to warn everyone and get my family out of here.”

This plea got through to him, from her perspective. He straightened in his posture and the antsy look in his eye was hardening into resolve. “I’ll get them home.”

“And just remember that it’s only for a little while,” she added, trying to give him her best smile but failing. It wouldn’t be so hard if her lips would just stop quivering.

She could hear the crowds getting louder and louder still outside of their cell. The match would begin soon and their captors would send for them. There were so many things that she wanted to say to him, but time kept slipping out of their fingers. Each word was like lead in her throat, stuck tight and difficult to push out.

He was kind enough to do the talking for her. “There’s one more thing I want from you before we do this.”

“What?” she finally asked.

“One more kiss,” Shiro said. “You know, since there’s no guarantee.”

Katie could more than manage that. She nodded and lifted herself up onto her toes to meet him, closing her eyes.

Shiro wrapped his arms about her waist, hoisting her up a few inches from the ground so that he wouldn’t have to hurt his back while he kissed her.

As usual when they did this, Katie was lighter than air this far from the floor. She cupped his entire face in both hands and pulled him in towards her mouth, locking onto his lips until she was certain that she would never let him go.

His lips held her just as firm. They stayed like this until the both of them needed to breathe and reluctantly pulled apart. But Shiro still held her to his chest. “Thanks, babe,” he said in a much softer voice than she was used to hearing him use.

“It’s the least I can do,” Katie murmured back.

Shiro put her down when the door to their cell opened. His face drained of all tender emotion and matched that of the stony Galra who escorted them out.

The two of them couldn’t be stopped from holding each others’ hands, however. An extra bit of moral support would only ensure that they would go through with this, that they would both have the strength to save their families and the single most important planet to them.

* * *

 

 It broke her heart to watch him do it, but Shiro played his role well in dealing out the first blow.

Katie dodged it, and most of the ones that followed. Of course, she had to let him get in at least a few authentic hits. Their audience, as well as their handlers, would get suspicious otherwise.

Shiro towered over her as she took another one, putting on his best Champion face as his arm glowed a bright magenta.

Katie rolled out of the way of his next super-charged punch. The ground beneath her vibrated as his fist met with the metal and artificial sand. She sprang up, caught his leg with her lasso and yanked hard.

He allowed her to drag him to the ground. His body made a loud, harsh thudding sound as he collapsed onto his side.

She pulled and she pulled him to her with all of her might. A Herculean feat, considering how large he was. But Katie kept roping him in until he was close enough for her to pounce. Katie straddled Shiro, her dagger drawn.

Shiro flipped over onto her as soon as she brought the dagger to his throat. Just as planned. This way, it would be easier for Katie to fake a wound and ‘kill’ him.

He pushed Katie down hard enough to draw out more blood from a wound he’d given her earlier. The gash barely registered on her pain threshold as it opened wider. Blood pooled underneath her, staining her long brown tresses until they were heavy with its weight. ‘Perfect,’ she thought.

Shiro pretended to struggle for dominance, grabbing and pushing the dagger away from himself.

Katie kept shoving it toward Shiro using just one hand. She used the other one to gather enough blood as discreetly as possible, making it look like she was instead fighting to get up from underneath him. Her little fist lay curled in wait for a chance. Though Katie remembered to thrash and flail it, from time to time.

“It’s over for you,” Shiro said aloud for the audience to hear, at which they whipped themselves into a frenzy. He leaned in close to murmur to Katie, afterward. “Ready whenever you are.”

‘Nice theatrics,’ she snarked to herself. Katie also noted him giving her the go-ahead, her sarcasm drifting out of the window and her focus flooding back to her senses. With one last struggle, one last deep breath, Katie lunged both hands towards Shiro’s throat.

It all happened in a blur. All Katie saw was the shower of her own blood flying up into the air and over both their heads as she tossed her fistful towards him. The glint of her dagger leaving a non-lethal but convincing cut on his neck was the only thing to stand out from the red obscuring her vision.

All the audience would see, meanwhile, was the underdog in this fight landing a brutal and merciless hit on their long-time Champion of the Arena. They believed he’d bled out in only a way that could mean she’d hit a vital point. Shiro’s sputtering gasps and eventual collapse helped to drive that point home.

Katie crawled atop him once he was flat on his back. She hovered above with her hair hung over her face and, by default, his. She held her dagger close to him again, but did not move it. Obscured from the prying eyes of the audience, Katie took this moment to get another look at Shiro. She’d thought that their ‘farewell’ kiss was enough to prepare her, but it wasn’t. Nothing could ever prepare her for what they had just done, for what they were about to do.

Shiro stared up at her, too. His eyes, what little she could see of them, roamed every inch of her face. She could see in them that he was aching to reach out and hold her. He never could leave her alone without at least _one_ more hug, one more “be safe, out there.” He couldn’t move right now, and so this was his best version of that.

Katie watched as the warm, beautiful light in those grey eyes died away. She stared as they rolled to the back of his head and showed only the whites before shutting closed. It chilled her, but the greatest terror of her life came soon afterward. Right when he put his acting skills to good use and he expertly stopped his heart from beating.

Everything in Shiro ceased to be. He didn’t flinch, he didn’t breathe a single gulp of air. Even his pulse seemed to fade away the longer she sat here.

And for a moment, she believed their lie. It was too real for her not to get suckered in like everyone else was. Amid the whispered gasps and hushed murmurs, she could hear the sounds of her own, pathetic sniveling. Real tears soon followed, streaking down her face and burning her eyes. When she was ready and enough blood had dripped onto Shiro, Katie let her head tilt back to show the audience just what she’d done to him.

hey all fell silent before erupting into a burst of cheers and applause. Many even stood to give her a proper ovation. The amphitheater filled to the brim with chants of “Champion, Champion, Champion!” but it was clearly not for their fallen allstar. As of now, Katie was their newly appointed celebrity.

The referee rushing over to grab her wrist, pull her off of Shiro and hold her hand up to the sky confirmed that much. He presented her to the crowd, perching her neatly up on the pedestal she had ‘earned.’

Katie would take it, for now. While everyone was busy losing their minds over the turn of events and a new gladiator rising to the top, she looked back to where Shiro lay.

The ones responsible for collecting the dead were already crowding around him. With care and precision not to get their clothes too filthy, they lifted Shiro up from the ground and carried him off. While they weren’t looking, Shiro’s head flopped to one side. His face still looked lifeless, but a bit of life still flickered in his eyes. Just for her.

‘Goodbye, Shiro,’ Katie said to herself. ‘See you on the outside… I hope.’

**Author's Note:**

> I regret to inform everyone reading this that until further notice, this story is under construction and will not be receiving updates for a while. I apologize to everyone who stuck with it, but it needs to have some major flaws fixed. Thank you for your patience and continued support.


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